Diving Deeper: October 2018 Grantmaking

On October 25, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation’s board of directors approved 77 grants totaling $3,110,000 in general grantmaking, and four capacity-building grants totaling $103,450.

In our last grants announcement, I reiterated our focus on building a grantmaking strategy that supports our partner’s efforts to eliminate racial disparities in housing, education, employment, and asset building throughout the region. I shared our early progress to that end under our revised selection criteria and goals, and this follow up provides an update on this continuing work.

What We’ve Learned by Going Deeper This Round

An adage that we’ve come to reinforce here at Meyer is that, “when you’ve seen one community, you’ve seen one community.” Our program directors Nadine Duplessy Kearns, Julian Haynes, and Sonia Quiñónez have sought to look beyond data and connect directly with individuals in communities by facilitating a series of conversations that serve to further inform our programmatic priorities in the District, Maryland, and Northern Virginia.

While we’ve seen many common threads that run through communities across the region, each has unique characteristics and we believe it is critical to tailor our approaches and strategies to the nuances that exist within each one. We’ve met families whose primary concern revolves around the area’s lack of quality housing that is affordable, and families whose primary concern is sending a child to school out of fear of family separation or deportation. Communities in this region have varied challenges, and solutions to most of them will require addressing the root causes in the systems that create and maintain those challenges.

Today, we are able to count more organizations doing systems change work – work that seeks to address the root causes of inequities, including advocacy to achieve systems change – to our grantmaking portfolio than ever before. To advance the long-term goals of our strategic plan grounded in racial equity and taking what we’ve learned from the communities into careful consideration, each grantee partner was looked at thoroughly and thoughtfully through a racial equity lens. The funding shifts we’ve made toward systems change are in response to the unaddressed needs and inequities in our region, but we continue to recognize the important work of organizations that provide critical direct services – even as we’ve had to make tough decisions about transitioning some from the Meyer portfolio. We are truly pleased to serve as a supportive partner to all of the following organizations. And we are excited about the significant work that many of them are pursuing to advance racial equity in our region now and for future generations.

October Grants Awarded​

Organization	Grant Amount	Project Title	Geographical Area Served
Action in Montgomery	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Alliance for Housing Solutions	$12,500	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Alliance for Justice	$30,000	to support advocacy training for a cohort of Meyer grantees	National
Aspire! Afterschool Learning	$25,000	to support the capital campaign	Northern Virginia
Aspire! Afterschool Learning	$30,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
Beacon House Community Ministry	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Black Swan Academy	$20,000	to support youth civic leadership and engagement programming	District of Columbia
Bread for the City	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
BUILD	$45,000	to support general operations of BUILD Metro DC over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Building Bridges Across the River	$25,000	to support community leadership empowerment workshops	District of Columbia
Capital Area Asset Building Corporation	$50,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Carpenter’s Shelter	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
Carpenter’s Shelter	$50,000	to support the capital campaign	Northern Virginia
CASA	$140,000	to support general operations over two years	Maryland
Centreville Immigration Forum	$35,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Centro De Apoyo Familiar	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Children’s Law Center	$60,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
City First Enterprises	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development	$90,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
College Success Foundation – District of Columbia	$37,500	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Cornerstones	$50,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Critical Exposure	$25,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
DC Alliance of Youth Advocates	$50,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
DC Center For Independent Living	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
DC Jobs With Justice	$20,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
DC Vote	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Doorways for Women and Families	$40,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
First Generation College Bound	$50,000	to support general operations	Maryland
First Shift Justice Project	$20,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
For Love of Children	$30,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Generation Hope	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Greater Washington Community Foundation	$100,000	to support the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Greater Washington Community Foundation	$50,000	to support Raise DC	District of Columbia
Greater Washington Urban League	$40,000	to support the Greater Washington Urban League Advocacy and Research Institute	District of Columbia
IMPACT Silver Spring	$50,000	to support general operations	Maryland
InfrastructureDC	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Jews United for Justice	$25,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Jubilee Housing	$60,000	to support the Platform of Hope initiative	District of Columbia
Jubilee Housing	$60,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Latino Economic Development Corporation	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services	$37,500	to support general operations over two years	Maryland
Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia	$50,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Life Pieces to Masterpieces	$60,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
LIFT	$25,000	to support general operations of LIFT-DC	District of Columbia
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia	$30,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Many Languages One Voice	$30,000	to support Movement Matters’ board recruitment, training and placement program and the Organizers’ Institute	District of Columbia
Many Languages One Voice	$25,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Martha’s Table	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care	$60,000	to support wraparound services in Prince George’s County over two years	Maryland
Mikva Challenge	$15,000	to support general operations of Mikva Challenge DC	District of Columbia
Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families	$37,500	to support general operations over two years	Maryland
Neighborhood Legal Services Program	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
New Virginia Majority Education Fund	$30,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Offender Aid and Restoration of Arlington	$20,000	to support development of an advocacy action network	Northern Virginia
Organizing Neighborhood Equity	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Pathways to Housing DC	$52,500	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education)	$20,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Per Scholas	$35,000	to support general operations in the National Capital Region	Maryland
Progressive Maryland Education Fund	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
ProInspire	$13,450	to support three convenings focused on Equity in the Center	District of Columbia
ProInspire	$30,000	to support the planning and design of a racial equity cohort program for Meyer grantees	Washington Metropolitan Area
Public Allies	$30,000	to support general operations of Public Allies DC over two years	District of Columbia
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United	$20,000	to support general operations of ROC-DC	District of Columbia
Shaw Community Ministry	$20,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Smart Growth America	$20,000	to support the Greater Greater Washington Education Project’s community engagement in the District	District of Columbia
So Others Might Eat	$75,000	to support the Center for Employment Training over two years	District of Columbia
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs	$10,000	to support Building Bosses	District of Columbia
Social Good Fund	$30,000	to support the Fair Budget Coalition	District of Columbia
StreetWise Partners	$37,500	to support general operations in Washington, DC over two years	District of Columbia
Turnaround for Children	$30,000	to support the Washington, DC program	District of Columbia
Unity Economic Development Corporation	$30,000	to support general operations over two years	Maryland
Urban Alliance	$105,000	to support general operations in the National Capital Region over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Urban Ed	$30,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement of Northern Virginia	$50,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Voices for Virginia’s Children	$30,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Washington Interfaith Network	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers	$20,000	to support Montgomery Moving Forward	Maryland
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers	$37,500	to support Nonprofit Montgomery over two years	Maryland
William Wendt Center for Loss and Healing	$52,500	to support the C.H.I.L.D. program over two years	District of Columbia
YWCA of the National Capital Area	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia